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Staff Recommendations A listing of current favorites, recommended by the bookstore staff. Check back for new recommendations each month as we bring you the best of what we're reading. Browse by title, author or staff member!   Andy   |  Dia   |  Don   |  Dug   |  Elaine   |  Garrett   |  Gent   |  Greg   |  Jeff   |  Lawrence   |  Linda   |  Luke   |  Maia   |  Matt   |  Matthew   |  Nancy   |  Paul   |  Peter   |  Scott   |  Stacey   |  Suzanne   |  Tân

1 2 3 4 5 6 >>>     sort list by title | author Marx's General The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels Tristram Hunt Recommended by Paul, City Lights Books. "Written with brio, warmth, and historical understanding, this is the best biography of one of the most attractive inhabitants of Victorian England, Marx's friend, partner, and political heir." --Eric Hobsbawm Border Songs Jim Lynch It is one of the particular pleasures of being a bookseller that every now and then I read a book that brings the world into sharper focus and ontological shadows into light. A book that creates a penumbra of perception that allows the world to shimmer wi I Hotel Karen Tei Yamashita I can say without any equivocation that "I hotel" is an amazing literary accomplishment and one of the most pleasurable reading experiences I have ever had. I believe "I hotel" stands on the same plane of accomplishment as Roberto Bolaño's "Savage... Wounded Knee Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre Heather Cox Richardson On December 29, 1890, American troops opened fire with howitzers on hundreds of unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, killing nearly 300 Sioux. As acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson shows in... Leaving the Bellweathers Kristin Clark Venuti This is a fun and wacky book, droll and wry and ever so clever. If reading about a crazy family living with their butler in a lighthouse sounds interesting, then this is the book for you. (For ages 8-12) -- Recommended by Jeff, City Lights Books The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Philip Pullman This is a slyly subversive retelling of the gospels, while remaining surprisingly true to its source. The author said it best: "Parts of it read like a novel, parts like a history, and parts like a fairy tale; I wanted it to be like that because it is... Black Water Rising A Novel Attica Locke Recommended by Paul, City Lights Books Jay Porter has long since made peace with not living the American Dream. He runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy Houston strip mall—where his most promising client is a low-rent call girl—and he's... The City & The City China Mieville A wonderfully labyrinthine novel. Ostensibly a murder mystery cum police procedural, Mieville has much more on his mind here -- how does a class of people define itself and coexist with another class of people with whom it may, on the surface, have... The Beats A Graphic History Paul Buhle, Harvey Pekar I've read a lot of Beat books in my time here at City Lights, but none are quite as fun as this graphic history. The perfect collection for those who think they've heard all the stories about Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, et al. The Beats also provides... Ablutions Notes for a Novel Patrick deWitt A drug-addled bartender serves up strong booze to his loathsome customers in a filthy bar in Hollywood. In less skilled hands, this story could have turned out like a tired retread of Bukowski; instead, it's a head-spinning surreal portrait of a... Poems of the Night A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text Jorge Luis Borges, Efrain Kristal, Suzanne Jill Levine An initial offering from a new series of thematically edited collections of Borges' poems & prose that is certain to bring English readers much deeper into the universe of the Head Librarian. The poems of this volume span Borges' lifetime and focus on... Secret Son Laila Lalami Laila Lalami's novel Secret Son is a marvelous read. Lalami has gifted us with a wonderfully crafted novel that realizes the potential evident in her collection of stories Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. Lalami's finely crafted sentences are timeless. Dreams in a Time of War A Childhood Memoir Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O Recommended by Paul, City Lights Books. By the world-renowned novelist, playwright, critic, and author of Wizard of the Crow, an evocative and affecting memoir of childhood.  Ngugi wa Thiong'o was born in 1938 in rural Kenya to a father whose four wives.. Big Machine A Novel Victor LaValle A hybrid of low-lifes and high ideals, his Big Machine runs on suicide cults and the voice of God taking you straight to the bowels of The Bay and the monsters that lurk without and withoin. Hard as a gun-muzzle to the jaw... 1 2 3 4 5 6 >>>